Uber has chosen Melbourne as the first international testing groiund for air taxis.
The city will host trials of the aerial taxi service beginning next year, and is targeting 2023 for commercial service.
Melbourne beat cities in Brazil, France, India, Japan and Sydney to become the first outside the US to test the ‘electric vertical take-off’ vehicles.
Dallas and Los Angeles are the other pilot cities.
Melbourne was selected because it ‘adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology,’ according to Susan Anderson, Uber’s regional general manager for Australia, New Zealand and North Asia.
Test flights will travel from the city to the main international airport, which typically takes a minimum of 25 minutes by car up to one hour depending on traffic.
The flying taxi can cover the 12-mile trip in 10 minutes, Uber says.
Once the service goes live, passengers will be able to book flights through the Uber app like any other Uber ride.
Aerial routes across the city will be connected by short hops to landing pads called ‘Skyports.’
